Posts Tagged john donovan

AT&T has been hinting for a while that it’s getting closer to implementing small cell sites in its network, and at CTIA Wireless 2012 gave a stronger clue as to when and how the mini network hubs will operate. Executive technology VP John Donovan clarified to Reuters that a pilot is expected to start late this year and should run into 2013. If all runs smoothly, the below-tower-sized sites will be clipping on to lamp posts and other parts of the urban landscape to strengthen coverage in places where wide-area WiFi alone won’t do. While Donovan didn’t venture deep into the infrastructure at the trade show, Cisco had previously said that AT&T would be using sites incorporating 2G, 3G, 4G and WiFi when the provider did start experimenting with small cells. If so, there’s a chance subscribers could get AT&T WiFi without having to turn to an airport, landmark or coffee shop.

Tiered data plans and throttles has everyone careful about their data usage. After being used to unlimited data, customers are starting to feel the drawbacks of being limited. Streaming and other data-hungry tasks are starting to become less popular (at least when out of WiFi range), but AT&T is looking to relieve its customers by charging app developers for those GB’s.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Ma Bell is planning a new tactic, in which developers cover the costs of data while using their app. The claim is that this would help developers get much more downloads and usage, as users are starting to avoid such data-hungry apps. Users would be able to use said apps without the data going against their monthly limit.

If a developer offered to take the punch for your data, more users would be willing to download and use their applications. AT&T executive John Donovan compares such service to toll-free 1-800 numbers, in which the company covers the costs of phone conversations.

Of course, those are the positive sides of the story. There is the other side of the spectrum, in which it is believed that developers would be substantially hurt by such practices. Sure, users might be most likely to use their services, but the costs for the developer might become too overbearing; hence, hurting the Android ecosystem. Users who once feared that $10 per GB overage fee would now blow their GB’s away streaming music, videos, etc. Not to mention that the prices for those services would probably rise.

We will have to wait and see how AT&T plays its cards. We would hope that no developer is forced to be part of this, and stays optional. But let us know what you think. Would this be a convenient method? Will it harm developers and consumers, in the long run?

We’re here at the AT&T Developers keynote and CTO John Donovan just revealed that the network is building AT&T Cloud Architect. It’s a developer-centric cloud that will help devs build cloud apps. There’s a full API coming soon with a flexible pricing structure: you can pay monthly or hourly depending on your needs. It’s also joining the OpenStack architecture, which Ma Bell’s gonna rely upon to support the platform — reportedly the first US telecom provider to do so. The company’s planning to optimize APIs to the extent that 10 billion API calls will be made before the end of 2012.

We’re here at the Palms for the opening keynote at AT&T’s annual Developer Summit. Last year’s event brought us the Motorola Atrix 4G, HTC Inspire 4G and Samsung Infuse 4G, among plenty of other little nuggets. We’re expecting to see another great showing, courtesy of AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega, CTO John Donovan and CMO David Christopher, so read along as we bring you the updates as it happens.

AT&T’s network is about to get a big boost when the carrier commences their 4G LTE rollout this summer. Plans were first announced last fall, but since then details of when and where we would see AT&T’s next-gen network cropping up have remained scant. Today the carrier revealed the first five cities to get blanketed in LTE, and committed to pushing the wireless standard to at least 10 more cities by the end of the year.

It all starts with Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, and San Antonio, which doesn’t exactly create the most wide-reaching coverage area. AT&T plans to have 70 million Americans within their LTE network before next year and will bring 20 new 4G devices to service them. Many of those devices will be HSPA+ only, but at least some will be LTE-ready. Full press statement below.

AT&T’s 4G Evolution

Dallas, Texas, May 25, 2011

By John Donovan, AT&T Chief Technology Officer

AT&T has delivered five mobile broadband speed upgrades in recent years, including our HSPA+ deployment last year. And average nationwide speeds on the AT&T network have increased – more than 40 percent over the past two years alone.

The next network evolution will arrive this summer with the addition of LTE in five markets – Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta and San Antonio. We plan to add another 10 or more markets in the second half of the year, and cover 70 million Americans with LTE by year-end. We also have plans to add 20 4G devices to our robust device portfolio this year, with some of those being LTE capable.

We’re positioning to deliver a great mobile broadband experience in the near term with HSPA+ and a growing LTE footprint.

We’ve invested $75 billion in our wireless and wired networks over the last four years – more capital invested in the U.S. than any company in any industry. And we plan to invest $19 billion in our wireless and wireline networks and other capital projects this year. The investments we’ve made to evolve our mobile broadband network in recent years, plus what we have planned for the future, put our customers in position to benefit fully from a host of coming mobile broadband innovations.

When the Samsung Infuse 4G launched with the ability to install unsigned apps from third-party sources, a long-standing policy with AT&T was reversed. In every Android release up until the Infuse, AT&T had blocked the capability over concerns for user security. A recently leaked document suggested the carrier would be retro-actively enabling what has come to be known as app sideloading for several devices via updates, and now a spokesperson with AT&T is confirming the fact, saying, "over the next few weeks, we will also roll out this capability to existing devices in our base for which an upgrade is possible.”

The carrier points to a previous inability to “find nefarious apps and to take them down.” CTO John Donovan, for whatever reason, now feels Android on AT&T is at a place where he feels comfortable opening up their devices to third-party markets without feeling like users are at risk.

Thanks for looking out for us for so long, AT&T, but I think we got this one. Sure, there will always be a handful of users who make bad choices when it comes to putting third-party software on their devices, but Android users on other carriers have been making out with sideloading just fine. For those on AT&T, expect a wide range of current devices to have the ban lifted in the near future.